


The Need for Therapeutic Justice

by KLessard



Series: Arctic Seasons [1]
Category: due South
Genre: Fanart, Gen, Illustrations, Painting, Siblings, Truth and Reconciliation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-25
Updated: 2015-11-25
Packaged: 2018-05-03 09:17:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5285240
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KLessard/pseuds/KLessard





	The Need for Therapeutic Justice

  
**The Need for Therapeutic Justice**  
35,5 cm x 45,5 cm  
Acrylic on canvas  
2015

Based on the  _Due South_  characters created by Paul Haggis and Julie Lacey

Models: Paul Gross and Jessica Steen

"He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy." (Proverbs 28:13)  
  
The Canadian North and its Inuit population is a subject I wanted to explore for a long time. In the summer of 2015, a church friend told me about the  _Due South_  television series he'd just discovered years after it initially aired in the late 1990's. I remembered this series fondly as my late father introduced me to it and it greatly contributed to my budding cultural identity as a Canadian growing up in Québec's separatist context. I decided to watch it again and brush up on the episodes I had missed at the time. I learned some interesting new things about Constable Fraser's life story and found out he had a half-sister living in the Northwest Territories with whom he is reunited in the end as he moves back North. I thought they were a fascinating character duo and wanted to make some art about them. As I started looking into what a RCMP officer’s work in the Northwest Territories is all about, I realized this position constitutes far more than arresting those who litter or fish over the limit as the series humorously depicts without intending to be realistic. The crime rate is actually higher in the territories than anywhere else in Canada mainly due to the Inuit people’s past abuse in the infamous government and Church-led residential schools. The Inuit drink to numb the pain and perpetuate the abuse they have known, having little resources to find healing and move on. Certainly, this would be something Constables Fraser and MacKenzie are very aware of and torn about, obsessed about justice as they are. At the end of the day, white men picking up white men's pieces is the role they play. The Church's involvement in the residential school abuse is particularly disturbing to me as I am a Christian and I feel a sense of responsibility when I consider all this. My project took a different turn as Fraser and MacKenzie became icons representing the shattered Canadian ideal and the nation's need to repent and deal with this ugly sin. The bleak winter landscape and dismembered inuksuk symbolize the Inuit people’s brokenness and need for restoration.

www.saatchiart.com/klessard


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